San Antonio, Texas: 14 Charged in Smuggling Case That Left Seven Dead in a Shipping Container

Federal prosecutors announced on Monday, November 9, that a grand jury in the Western District of Texas charged 14 people in a human smuggling organization linked to the deaths of seven migrants, including a 14 year old child from Honduras, who died inside a shipping container carried by freight train from Del Rio toward San Antonio.

The 14 include four United States citizens, three other noncitizens and seven people described as unlawfully present in the United States. Eleven were first indicted in July.

Seven people loaded into a container with no ventilation

According to court documents cited by the Justice Department, the organization operated from at least April 2023 through May 12, 2026, moving migrants across the border from Mexico and then farther into the United States on cargo trains. Migrants, or their families and friends, paid between 1,500 dollars and 10,000 dollars, and people were held in houses or hidden in brush near the Rio Grande near Del Rio before being loaded into containers.

Prosecutors say the organization began arranging transport for the seven in February 2026. On or about May 9, after the group crossed into the Del Rio area, smugglers took them near the Union Pacific tracks. Between about 1:18 p.m. and 1:25 p.m., while a train stood still, smugglers allegedly cut the lock off a Conex container with red bolt cutters, loaded the seven inside and shut the door.

The container, stacked on top of another, had no ventilation or cooling, was secured from the outside and could not be opened from inside. Outside temperatures that day ranged from 88 to 92 degrees Fahrenheit.

The train reached San Antonio, then Laredo

The train traveled east along the U.S. Highway 90 corridor to San Antonio. Prosecutors say smugglers opened the container there, found the people inside in peril, and fled, leaving one deceased victim near the tracks and the rest inside. The train then continued south to Laredo.

On May 10, a Union Pacific rail yard worker in Laredo saw a leg sticking out of the container. Six people were found dead inside, and San Antonio officers later found the seventh victim by the tracks there. Four of the dead were Mexican nationals and three were Honduran, including the 14 year old. At least one victim had messaged a loved one pleading for help.

Charges and penalties

Twelve defendants are charged with conspiracy to transport migrants resulting in death, and with aiding that transport, counts that carry up to life in prison. Eleven face seven counts of aiding the unlawful entry of migrants, with five to 15 years if convicted on at least three counts. Twelve are charged with conspiracy to bring migrants in causing serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy, up to 20 years, and 11 with conspiracy to commit money laundering, also up to 20 years.

The Justice Department named the defendants as Karina Garcia, 37, Edson Alejandro Perez, 18, and Mayra Alejandra Huerta, 32, all of Del Rio; Eric Hernandez, 40, of Eagle Pass; Seferino Huerta-Casillas, 35, Maria Norma Neri de Moran, 56, Damian Huerta Analucas, 55, and Rosario Cristal Lopez-Saldana, 26, of Mexico; Jonas Ulloa-Aguilera, 25, Franklin Williams Ayala Aguilera, 30, Juan Alvaro Membreno-Contreras, 40, Yuri Julissa Cuaresma Paredes, 34, and Mavis Aleyda Escalante Peraza, 38, of Honduras; and Pascual Raymundo Loarca, 34, of Guatemala.

Homeland Security Investigations led the investigation, with help from the Border Patrol, Texas authorities, local departments and the Union Pacific Railroad Police.

An indictment is an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in court.